Enable Chromecast Support in Chrome for Android Beta

Enabling Experimental Chromecast support in Google Chrome for Android Beta (version 34) is simple enough. With a new tab open, head to the chrome://flags page. When loaded, scroll down until you find the ‘Enable Cast’ option, hit the Enable text and relaunch Chrome when prompted. Once it reopens the feature should be activated and ready to try.

To test it out visit YouTube in the browser (not the standalone Android app) and you should see the Chromecast icon atop video thumbnails. HTML5 videos are supported in theory, but few seem to work. Toggling videos fullscreen often triggers support, but given the experimental nature of support issues and bugs are to be expected.

Stable users can expect to find this feature enabled by default at some point in the not-so-distant future.

I’m still unsure how this works or what the benefit is over a HDMI connection, besides being cable free. Am I correct in thinking it’s only going to work for specific Android apps and via a Chrome browser on Chrome OS/PC/Mac/Linux? So it wouldn’t work say from VLC on my Linux laptop to TV? Also does it have a direct connection or does it go via WiFi, if so how much bandwidth would it use, ie would it affect other users on the network?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Kenny Strawn

It brings the Google Cast extension functionality from Chrome to Android… Anyone with a PC, Mac, Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebase, or Linux box already has the ability to Chromecast content from tabs and the screen, however.

ForSquirel

The biggest benefit over HDMI is you won’t have to sit 6 foot from your TV when casting. that aside, things like youtube don’t cast through the device. It simply tells the chromecast where to look for the feed. iirc

Being able to quick and dirty mirror a tab is pretty cool as well, although I wish it had the option to show the mouse, but I understand why it doesn’t. It’s nice to be able to just pop pages up and down the CC without being attached to the TV. It made teaching my dad this weekend easier, for instance.

It wouldn’t work from VLC but you can play supported file types in chrome and cast those the same way you would a media server, sorta.

Efjay

Thanks for the info. I guess it must make sense for people who stream movies through a browser? I don’t do that myself, I like physical copies then make an mp4 for my media library. Doing what I do with HDMI is probably more useful for my needs tbh. Neat looking gadget though. Cheers for the reply.

Danny McVey

This is great! I come from the Apple ecosystem where I’m used to streaming practically anything I want from my iOS device to my Apple TV via AirPlay. I’m glad to see that Chromecast isn’t just limited to supported apps.